Friday, November 10, 2017

Exchange Student at Windham High shares her recent adventures by Julia Freire of Brazil

For a student,
entering an exchange program is a dream come true. It gives students the unique
chance of living in a new country, with a new family. It is surreal.

During the time I
have spent living in Windham since leaving Brazil, I have met amazing people
and visited outstanding places. Maine is a beautiful and peaceful place, but
the time I spent getting here wasn’t quite as delightful. I was told before
that the travel wasn’t going to last more than 20 hours, but it turned into a
48-hour-trip.

Julia, center, finally meets up with her host family

I left
Brazil on August 21. My family members were excited and crying when we
arrived at the airport and said our goodbyes. It was a really sad moment, but
it was necessary. I arrived on August 22 in New York, and took another plane to
Portland, but I missed an important detail: there are two Portlands in the
United States!

By my bad luck, I
ended up in the one in Oregon. I didn’t even find out until I got on the plane.
By then it was too late and I couldn’t talk to anyone that could help me. My
host family got desperate when they went to the airport and didn’t see me; my
parents in Brazil were really concerned and I did not have the chance to talk
to them until I landed, which was 9 long hours after I left New York.

By the time I
landed in Oregon, both my host family and my family in Brazil were aware of
what happened and were trying to come up with a solution. Fortunately, the
airline was also aware and gave me all the support I needed, including
rescheduling my plane ticket and helping me talk to my parents.

But the biggest
question was, who was the responsible for this huge mistake? The lady that was
responsible for my exchange program papers bought me the wrong plane ticket,
but she said that wasn’t her fault.

After spending a
whole day in the airport, I finally took the right plane to Portland; the one
in Maine this time. I finally got to meet my host family, and since then, we
are having an amazing time together.

I’m here for the
school year, and hopefully it is going to be one of the best years of my life!

I talked to some
of the other exchange students from Brazil about their own experiences in Maine
so far. All of them are loving the place and the people. Everything is very
different from our country, especially the food.